Matters Blackwater (Merged thread)

[skiguy]

Rob, that is an excellent post, sir!

Dumb question time (I haven't asked one in a while). Do civilians embedded with the military fall under UCMJ rules?

[tequila]

Rob, that is an excellent post, sir!

Dumb question time (I haven't asked one in a while). Do civilians embedded with the military fall under UCMJ rules?

Apparently so, according to Peter W. Singer.

I don't think Blackwater falls under these rules or any DoD regulations since their primary contract is with the DoS, as in this particular incident.

...

Over the past year, the military has issued a series of "fragos," or fragmentary orders, designed to impose greater accountability on security contractors operating under Defense Department contracts. Blackwater was not covered because it reported to the State Department.

The new rules included procedures for the registration of weapons and streamlined the reporting of shooting incidents. The U.S. military's director of security for the Green Zone, where approximately three dozen private security firms are based, has conducted sweeps that netted hundreds of unauthorized weapons.

The military also required companies to obtain operating licenses through the Interior Ministry to operate legally in Iraq. The licenses added another layer of accountability: Licensed companies were given colorful numbered decals to attach to the sides of their armored vehicles, clearly identifying them as belonging to a security firm.

...

None of the new orders applied to Blackwater, which has received $678 million in State Department contracts since 2003 and operates under the department's authority.

"I'm not gonna go chasing after non-DoD organizations, going, 'Uh, you didn't submit an incident report for this,' " said Maj. Kent Lightner of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who monitors shooting incidents involving private security contractors under Defense Department contracts ...

[skiguy]

Apparently so, according to Peter W. Singer.

New Reasons To Prosecute Civilian contractors now might be punished for disrespecting an officer, disregarding an order
...
If private individuals want to do military jobs for profit in war zones on behalf of the U.S. government, then they should agree to fall under the same laws as U.S. soldiers, he said.

I agree completely. This is as it should be. If a civilian is over there doing COIN operations, is embedded with and doing the same things as or is supporting military personnel, and is under the same leadership, then he should be punished for the same things as the military guys are. It's just as important for the civilian to obey orders as it is for the Army/Marine guy.

“We’re deeply concerned that the broad and arbitrary application of the UCMJ imposes a whole range of behavioral requirements” on contract employees, Soloway said.

So what? Soloway makes no sense. A civilian should show just as much respect and have the same willingness to follow his leader wherever he goes, just as anyone else in the military would do. If not, then don't go into a conflict zone and work along side them. Stay home and be a desk jockey if it causes that much concern.
JMHO

[sgmgrumpy]

Blackwater employees are under investigation.

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that two former Blackwater employees — Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. — are cooperating with federal investigators.

The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq without a license.